Castle of the Dancing Fools

Three identical gentlemen are dancing on the Castle's sunlit terrace. They dream of being famous, chased by some invisible paparazzi. But there are some others who try to steal their beautiful dream.

  • Arthur Mountaniol
    Director
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Arthur Mountaniol
    Key Cast
    "Dancing Fools, Witch, Maestro"
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Arthur Mountaniol
    Composer
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Arthur Mountaniol
    Editor
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Arthur Mountaniol
    DP
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Arthur Mountaniol
    Producer
    Third Eye of The Shaman, Serpent Street, Ballad of the Evil Fate
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Surrealism, Fantasy, Music
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 19, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Arthur Mountaniol

Arthur Mountaniol is LA-based rock musician extraordinaire: singer/songwriter, composer, electric guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, album art designer and filmmaker. A former leader of the progressive rock band "The Moon Pierrot". A multiple winner of ASCAP awards (American Society of Composers) and a prolific recording artist best known for his diverse vocal styles, Asian throat singing, innovative guitar work and visionary style.

Selected Filmography

1. "Forbidden Fruit Carnival" (2010) - Shockfest of Hollywood (Official Selection)
2. "Serpent Street" (2014) - Winner (Best Music Short) Queen City Film Festival
3. "Third Eye of The Shaman" (2017) - Winner (Honorable Mention) Headline International Film Festival, Los Angeles Cinefest (Semi-Finalist Award), Oaxaca Film Festival (Endorsement), Queen City Film Festival (Official Selection) and North American Film Awards (Best Experimental Film Nomination)
4. "Ballad of the Evil Fate" (2018) - Fake Flesh Film Festival (Official Selection)
5. "In a Dream of a Muse" (2018) - My Love Michelle Film Festival (Official selection), Sefalu Film Festival Italy (Official Selection)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Andrei Tarkovsky once said: - "There are two kinds of filmmakers - those who record reality and those who create their own". I definitely belong to the second kind because I'm insanely creative and inventive both musically and visually.

Of course I'm a musician first, but I believe that filmmaking helps me express my vision to the fullest extent possible because Cinema embodies all kinds of arts and that's why I love it.

CASTLE OF THE DANCING FOOLS

The main inspiration for this short film was my old a-la medieval song "Castle of the Dancing Fools" which I had written in 1988. Recently, though, I arranged it as an instrumental polyphonic piece for several guitars.

However, the visual inspiration came to me from my discovery of the Spanish-style terrace on one of the banks of LA river. Beautiful in its emptiness, it had amazing visual possibilities because of the sunlight shining through its arks. It looked different every few minutes as the sun went down, sometimes creating a look like that on Claude Monet's paintings.

Having that all in mind, it wasn't really hard for me to imagine all the characters that would be there.

Everything was totally improvised on the set and there was no actual choreography or pre-scripted action. It took only a few days of preparation and shooting. Although the editing process was much longer due the film's surreal and impressionistic nature which demanded a lot of creativity and inventiveness.

As a result, I've made a little dream-like and elegant spectacle. A modern silent weird fairy-tale with the beautiful music.

I hope you'll enjoy it.